Miller-McCune

The visual images of brain activity captured by functional MRI machines are undeniably fascinating. But two new studies point out troubling aspects of this technology.

It sounds like one of those commercials you see on day-time television for a better stain-removing spray, but even Mr. Clean can't do this: Researchers at Monash University in Victoria, Australia, have created clothes - spun from natural fibers -- that clean themselves.

It's always nice to find out that what would generally be considered a shortcoming can be reconstituted as a positive adaption.

Now that Hillary Clinton's "3 a.m. insistently ringing red phone" commercial has achieved political advertisement hall-of-fame status, political scientists John Geer and Ken Goldstein argue in a Los Angeles Times op-ed piece that negative campaign ads — far from being the scourge that most commentators make them out to be — energize the electorate and facilitate an informed debate about the candidates' relative merits.

Is God a Democrat or a Republican? At a time when the polarized views of preachers are getting much media attention, it's reassuring to learn that a huge majority of Americans consider the Almighty to be politically nonpartisan.